New Memphis Coach Buys Southwind Home

Recently hired University of Memphis men’s basketball coach Josh Pastner and his wife, Kerri, have bought a Southwind home for $775,000, according to a notice that appears in today’s edition of The Daily News. The sale closed Tuesday.

The 6,031-square-foot, two-story home on Windgarden Cove was built in 1997. It sits on 0.35 acres and backs up to the TPC Southwind golf course.

With five bedrooms, four full bathrooms, two half bathrooms and a swimming pool, the home’s most recent appraisal was $947,000, according to the Shelby County Assessor of Property.

The Pastners, who were married in May, bought the home from David and Mary-Suzanne Powell. The Pastners took out two loans from Magna Bank – one for $417,000 and one for $279,725.

Pastner was hired as the Memphis men’s basketball coach in early April following the departure of John Calipari to the University of Kentucky. Pastner had spent the previous year as an assistant under Calipari, whose East Memphis home is still for sale.

That house, at 220 E. Galloway Drive, is listed at $1.7 million with Hobson Realtors. The five-bedroom, 5.5- bathroom home sits on 1.26 acres on the east side of East Galloway Drive across from Galloway Golf Course.

Source: The Daily News Online & Chandler Reports

St. Jude Treatment Avoids Cranial Radiation

Researchers at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have devised a personalized chemotherapy regimen for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) without cranial radiation.

The radiation of the brain was once a standard ALL treatment that can prevent recurrence of the leukemia in the central nervous system. It can produce side effects, including second cancers, stunted growth, hormone imbalances and cognitive problems.

The findings of the research are reported in Thursday’s issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The study involved 498 patients treated for ALL at St. Jude and Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas, between 2000 and 2007.

St. Jude investigators applied personalized therapy based on genetic traits of the cancer and the patients. Researchers reported that the therapy produced a projected cure rate of 90 percent for all patients, which is the best treatment result reported to date.

Bredesen Signs $29.4B Spending Plan Into Law

The Democratic governor signed the budget in a press conference with reporters Thursday. The next budget year begins Wednesday.

Bredesen said the budget passed by the Legislature largely reflects his original budget proposal. The state share of the spending plan, about $12.1 billion, is about a 10 percent cut from last year’s budget.

The budget includes $2.2 billion in federal stimulus money Bredesen said will help prevent even deeper spending cuts.

Bredesen also signed into law a stimulus-funded measure to extend unemployment benefits.

Fed Scales Back Emergency Lending Programs

The Federal Reserve took the first step Thursday toward winding down the numerous emergency lending programs it launched last fall at the height of the financial crisis.

The Fed will allow one program intended to support money market mutual funds to lapse by Oct. 31, and is reducing the amount it will lend to banks under two others.

The Fed also is extending through Feb. 1 five other programs scheduled to expire Oct. 31. That includes swap lines with 14 central banks that enable them to provide dollars to their financial systems in exchange for giving the Fed foreign currencies.

The changes are the first by the central bank designed to scale back its efforts to support the financial system. The Fed pumped trillions of dollars into commercial and investment banks through an alphabet-soup of emergency programs as the banks hoarded cash and refused to lend to each other and consumers late last year.

The Fed said it will allow the Money Market Investor Funding Facility to expire Oct. 31. The program was part of the government’s efforts last fall to prevent a run on money market mutual funds, after one fund saw its shares fall below $1 in the wake of Lehman Brothers’ collapse in September.

The Fed also said it will reduce the maximum amount it will lend under the Term Auction Facility, which provides one-month loans to banks, to $500 billion from $600 billion.

The Fed has lent $336.6 billion under the TAF, down from a peak of $493.1 billion in March.

The Term Securities Lending Facility, which allows investment banks to borrow the Fed’s Treasury securities in exchange for riskier mortgage-backed securities and corporate bonds, also is being scaled down.

The maximum amount outstanding under that program will drop to $75 billion from $200 billion. The use of that program has dropped to $15.75 billion from a peak of $233.6 billion in October.

U of M Offers Online MBA Program

Busy professionals looking for a more accessible way to earn a master’s degree in business administration can now enroll in the University of Memphis’ new online MBA program this fall.

The online MBA is a 33-hour program that consists of a 30-hour core plus one three-hour elective. The curriculum will offer real-time chat, AV-enhanced PowerPoint presentations, podcasts, blogs, threaded discussion boards and Wiki collaboration tools.

No prerequisite courses are required for the online MBA. The deadline to apply for the fall semester is Aug. 24.

First Heat-Related Death Reported in Shelby County

The Shelby County Medical Examiner has determined that a 76-year-old Memphis woman is the area’s first heat-related death this year.

The woman was found Saturday by a family member inside her Frayser home, said Dr. Karen E. Chancellor, the Shelby County medical examiner. The indoor temperature in her home was 88 degrees at the time. The home did not have a working air conditioner, and there was no airflow inside the home.

Legal Expert to Speak At Nonprofit Workshop

April Carson, the staff attorney for the Washington-based Alliance for Justice, will speak on “Advocacy and Public Policy” at a workshop from 8:30 a.m. to noon Tuesday at the Alliance for Nonprofit Excellence at 5100 Poplar Ave., Suite 502.

Topics will include lobbying laws, advocacy planning, lobbying, the basics of the legislative process, media activity, grassroots organizing and special events. The cost is $65 for members and $125 for nonmembers.